A wing can only take 4 hits, only shoots with 2 dice and has has no astromech ability. I think you're over estimating the A-Wing's ability to replace the X-Wing. Empire will field more Tie Fighters than you can A-Wings and the differences between an A-Wing and a Tie Fighter's stats are rather slim. Offensive dice give a bigger return than defensive dice per die and actions only help that so the X-Wing is still the premier offensive fighter.

That said, I think the A-Wing has a role it will fill in harrassment. Using it's speed/maneuverability and good agility dice it can commit to flanking actions much easier than anything the Rebels have. It will also do great for people wanting to bring a Falcon because of it's low price. I think it will be a great addition and people will bring at least 1, but I don't think it will replace anything in full.

Surtur said:

So which do you think is better for its cost, the proto-pilot and cluster missiles or a rookie x wing? I think that when it comes to those numbers the A-wing wins. It can deal two rounds of the x-wings dice in one round and will be able to stick around longer. The lower pilot level is preferable for me as is its maneuver dials. K-turn 5? Dont mind if I do! :)

Surtur said:

So which do you think is better for its cost, the proto-pilot and cluster missiles or a rookie x wing? I think that when it comes to those numbers the A-wing wins. It can deal two rounds of the x-wings dice in one round and will be able to stick around longer. The lower pilot level is preferable for me as is its maneuver dials. K-turn 5? Dont mind if I do! :)

Surtur said:

I came to the same conclusion from a different perspective. I'd rather have a ship with 3 attack dice than 2 attack dice, but I'd rather have more ships on the table than fewer.

So at 21 points each, I can fit 4 X-wings in a 100-point squad--but that leaves me only 16 points for upgrades (counting "pilot" as a kind of upgrade). That's on the skinny side of things, because there are a lot of nice secondary weapons, skilled pilots, elite talents, etc.

The Rebels' problem, in comparison to the Empire, is that 16 points isn't quite enough for the upgrades you want. Just upgrading a Rookie to Wedge costs 8 points--half of your margin. So what the Rebels really need is a ship that comes on a cheaper skeleton, allowing them to stay at 4 ships and open up that margin a bit further, or use that margin to go to 5 ships in order to compete more directly with the smaller Imperial lists.

And A-wings are a really nice solution to that problem. Continuing the same example, 4 X-wings cost 84 points, but 2 X-wings and 2 A-wings cost 76. I've just increased my margin for upgrades by 50% without decreasing the number of ships in my squad. And that lets me pull all kinds of fun synergistic tricks without reducing the number of attacks and actions I get to take in a turn--or it lets me field 2 X-wings and 3 A-wings, which is a squad size that hasn't really been an option for Rebels in the past.

The A-wing shouldn't be as effective as the X-wing, because it's cheaper. If it were just as effective, it would either be undercosted or it would be too expensive to be useful in the metagame. What I need for building Rebel lists is a ship that's a little cheaper than an X-wing and still useful, and the A-wing does that. After the Wave 2 release, I doubt I'll build many lists with 0 A-wings, because I'll either be using them to create room for upgrades, or I'll be taking them instead of upgrades.

I view the Awing as a playable Ywing without ion cannons, which most players are actually considering right now, mainly due to the low cost that allows you to sneak in one additional ship into your build. There are other considerations though.

Awings are pretty much flying the same arcs as regular TIE fighters (just with different colours), and without speed 1 movements (no, the hard turn doesnt count), it can be rather tricky for the Awing to stay close with your slower Xwing and Ywing to continue to benefit from the group bonuses that Rebels generally enjoy and make use of. You can try this by tossing a TIE fighter into your Rebel squad and see how it works out in the middle of a fight (yes, go try out a mixed squad). Flying at that kind of speeds also restricts the Awing's abilities and potential, and on top of that, the named Awing pilots have abilities that do not really work well with the rest of your squad, ie. they tend to be rather selfish standalone effects like what you get from the imperials. 

long story short, would I run it in my squad? That would depend on what I expect to get out of them. Based on Crynyd's ability, the Awing is supposed to zip around at 4-5 speeds and try to catch opponents at range 1 to make up for its 2 attack dice, then get out, turn around, and get another pass. You could also have it dogfight like a regular TIE, and with an entire row of green speed 2 maneuvers, it's not that bad in that aspect either, but do not expect it to last long if you do that due to it having the same stats as a normal TIE, but with an additional shield/hp. The regular Xwing is still more versatile and still remains as a core in most rebel builds, simply due to the pilot effects and the amount of upgrades you can put on them to customize them to various specific roles. With the Awing, you can try, but it doesn't offer the kind of "teamwork based" play that the rebels excel at.